Find the next number in the sequence

5 12 24 36 ?

What is next number in the pattern below:

131 517 192 123 ?

A man plots the murder of his wife. His plan is full proof. Nobody saw them leaving their house. He stabbed her with a knife while driving. She died on the spot. He threw her body in a valley. He threw the knife carefully wiping his finger prints on a random garbage bin. Then he went back to his home and no one was watching him this time as well.

After an hour, he was called by the local police department who informed him that his wife was murdered. They asked him to reach the scene of crime immediately. But as soon as he arrived at the crime scene, he was arrested by them.

How did the police know that he himself is the murderer?

The more it dries, the wetter it becomes. Can you tell what it is?

We have arranged an array of numbers below. What you have to do is use any kind of mathematical symbol you know excluding any symbol that contains a number like cube root. You can use any amount of symbols but you have to come up with a valid equation for all of them.

0 0 0 = 6
1 1 1 = 6
2 + 2 + 2 = 6
3 3 3 = 6
4 4 4 = 6
5 5 5 = 6
6 6 6 = 6
7 7 7 = 6
8 8 8 = 6
9 9 9 = 6

0 0 0 = 6
1 1 1 = 6
2 2 2 = 6
3 3 3 = 6
4 4 4 = 6
5 5 5 = 6
6 6 6 = 6
7 7 7 = 6
8 8 8 = 6
9 9 9 = 6

You can use any mathematical symbols in the space provided to make all above algebraic expressions true.

One fine day, an intellectual man came to the emperor's court with the aim of testing Birbal's wittiness. In order to do this, he challenged Birbal to answer his question and hence prove that he was as intelligent and witty as he was said to be.
He asked Birbal, Do you want me to ask one difficult question or a hundred easy ones?
Since both Akbar and Birbal had had a tough day and were eager to leave, Birbal hastily told the intellectual to ask him a single difficult question.
Intellectual: OK. Tell me what came first into the world, the egg or the chicken?
Of course, the chicken, Birbal replied with a smile.
This time with a note of victory in his voice, the intellectual asked Birbal, How will you demonstrate that?
What did Birbal say?

Can you name an animal whose killing cannot be performed without spilling your own blood?

Today, I celebrated my 32nd birthday but I was born in 1972.
How is this possible?

Andrew sees a very rare bird named "Ruppell's vulture". Soon Andrew was dead. Can you explain the mystery, Mr. Sherlock?